UPDATE: The City Council voted 4-1 to approve the updated agreement. City Rep. Brian Kennedy was the only “no” vote.
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – The El Paso City Council will consider at its Tuesday meeting a revised economic development agreement with a developer that plans to renovate the fire-damaged De Soto Hotel.
The revised agreement, if approve, would require a minimum investment of $2.4 million from the developer, known as 309 Mills LLC. It would also increase the city and county’s incentive package from $103,136 to $296,093.
The city-county inventive package is a combination of property tax rebates over 15 years, permit fee waivers and grants.
The city’s share of the incentive package would be $205,400, according to the agenda backup material.
An initial agreement was approved in December 2021 about two months before a fire damaged the Downtown hotel, which is located at 309 E. Mills.
The proposed project would renovate the property and would include a full remediation of the fire damage, conversion of the ground floor into a restaurant, renovation of the upper floors into hotel rooms, renovation of the façade and the addition of public art.
The agenda item states that the “project will increase the tax value of the property and greatly enhance the aesthetic value of the area.”
